If you’ve never heard of an SQL injection, don’t worry; it’s a term that only really entered the public consciousness in the last few years. Describing a way for hackers and other criminals to steal data, an SQL injection basically makes let’s malicious people inject bad code into a website’s database and then they can tamper with the website, such as by sending customer details to somebody outside a company. [Read more…]

WordPress is one of the best CMS platforms for users to build their websites on. It has an intuitive interface with easy-to-use features to help them develop the best-looking site or blog possible. This is one of the many reasons why WordPress has more than 75 million users worldwide.

There’s a slim chance that your site or blog will be hacked anytime soon, unless it’s one of the most popular ones out there, in which case it has 33% chance of contracting malware. However, if you’re really serious about making a living with your site or blog, then you need to take these threats seriously as well.

Below are tips on how you can beef up your WordPress security to safeguard your site or blog from possible attacks. [Read more…]

Internet security is the only topic on the web that I can predict will always be in the headlines as long as mankind and internet technologies exist. As we take exponential leaps and bounds in technological advancements, security is an issue that is always there to keep us busy. An increased number of our most valuable assets are gradually being transferred online in the form of private data, financial information and general web presences and the opportunities for exploitation by scammers and thieves increase. Our reliance on the web can potentially be our greatest downfall. Especially those of us who are not prepared.

As you search the web you’ll find a plethora of articles on how to secure your WordPress blog but you won’t find articles that point out the overall evolution of online threats and the fact that exploits and attack maneuvers are becoming tremendously complex and smarter and WordPress sites are at great risk. Keeping your WordPress installation up to date, tweaked and cleaned won’t cut it for total security. [Read more…]

WordPress blogs are one of many targets for hackers, and with so many people making simple mistakes, it becomes clear why. There are many ways of protecting your blog, and we’ve outlined five mistakes you might be making. While using a stronger password or keeping your plugins and theme updated tend to be common advice, you can take additional measures. In fact, you can ensure that absolutely no one, even if they were to get your password, will ever be able to access your blog.

Two-factor authentication is a wonderful thing, and was first used in the workplace to protect sensitive data. Nowadays, companies like Google or Microsoft offer the functionality, and all that’s required is a mobile phone. How it works is when you go to login someplace, and have two-factor authentication enabled, you are required to enter a special pin. For example, Google has its “Authenticator” app which you fire up to see the special pin, or you can opt to receive a text message or phone call instead. A special pin isn’t always required, and Twitter recently implemented its own solution which involves approving a trusted device. [Read more…]

It doesn’t matter if you write about Teletubbies, or are even relatively unknown. Hackers will go after anyone, often injecting malware or adding links to suspicious websites. This can put a sour taste in reader’s mouths, making them wary of visiting your blog again. While WordPress has gotten better over the years, and blog security has improved, there are still multiple factors that make your site an easy target, mistakes that can easily be avoided… [Read more…]

Since some days a rather nasty hack has been going round in the WordPress community. I actually noticed it myself not that long when I googled for ‘Chris Pearson‘ and what I saw in the results was… shall we say ‘interesting’?

Prozac, Levitra, Lexapro? Had Chris sold the ‘Best Damn Blog on the Planet’, AKA Pearsonified? I went to check out Chris’ blog but no. No Prozac, Levitra or anything else of suspicious nature to be found there. Just your regular well-tuned Pearson content. I even looked in the source code and a quick search for known brands ended empty. I left again, having long forgotten already why I googled Chris in the first place.

Now it seems though that this hack is making the rounds and becoming more and more popular. Leland Fiegel from Themelab first reported about it on first reported about it on the Themelab blog, more than a month ago already. Afterwards the issue was covered over at the WP Tavern forums but no solution has been found so far. Even the WordPress Lead Developer, Mark Jaquith, is left clueless and hopes to solve the issue ASAP. [Read more…]

The front page of CERT/CC, the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute and cyber security experts, looks back at 2008 as the 20th anniversary of the Morris worm, sometimes called the “Great Worm,” which crippled the Internet in 1988. Created by Robert Morris, now an associate professor at MIT, it was one of the first computer worms to infect the brand new Internet, exploiting known vulnerabilities and causing millions in damages. It also was the first conviction in the United States as part of the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Years ago, a friend of mine worked for Boeing IT and taught many company workshops and training programs that began with an amusing lecture on “Safe Computer Sex.” She taught fellow employees to take care when flipping floppies to avoid transferring computer program infections across the network. How far we have come from those days.

As our dependence upon the web increased with email communication, spammers, hackers and attackers spread evil through your email inbox. Now, they are attacking our websites, social media tools, and web browsers.

Microsoft announced recently security issues with the Internet Explorer web browser and the dangers of visiting websites that could exploit that security vulnerability. Many warned to not use Internet Explorer until it was patched and updated.

Google created the Browser Security Handbook to help people and developers understand the security issues facing web browsers and the steps to take to protect individuals and web applications.

Online, apparently, it’s fine for someone to run into a crowded theatre and yell “fire” and the less basis there is in fact the more people link to them. It’s not uncommon to see crying-wolf reports like the above several times in a week, and a big part of what the WP security team is sifting through things to see what’s valid or not.

…All that said, there is a wave of attacks going around targeting old WordPress blogs, particularly those on the 2.1 or 2.2 branch. They’re exploiting problems that have been fixed for a year or more. This typically manifests itself through hidden spam being put on your site, either in the post or in a directory, and people notice when they get dropped from Google. (Google will drop your site if it contains links they consider spammy, you’ll remember this is one of the main reasons I came out against sponsored themes.)

“Sponsored” WordPress Themes were banned from the official WordPress Theme Directory due to inclusion of ads, spam, and malicious links in Themes offered for free, with a hidden price. WordPress Theme scams continue and WordPress users are warned repeatedly to be cautious about downloading and using WordPress Themes without careful inspection and testing.

In the last issue of this series on “Cyber Attacks on the Rise in 2009,” I covered the current spread of the Downadup Worm Infection that uses websites to spread its evil, impacting more than 3.5 million sites worldwide. Such attacks are becoming more rare, but hackers targeting blogs are growing in numbers and resourcefulness. We must be on our guard to protect our blogs more this year than ever before. [Read more…]

WordPress 2.7 downloads now past 650,000. Poll out for WordPress 2.8 input. Possible WordPress Theme threat you need to know about. BuddyPress beta released. Imagine moving millions of Typepad blogs to WordPress? Want some WordPress schwag? WordCamps coming up in January – are you going to a WordCamp near you? And if the weather permits, and electricity holds, we’ve got more WordPress news for you!

WordPress News

Get Ready for WordPress 2.8: Already work is ongoing for WordPress 2.8 and WordPress wants your feedback. In “Prioritizing Features for WordPress 2.8,” Jane Wells invites people to take a poll on what are the top priorities WordPress developers should be putting their energy into. Currently, they are focused on WordPress Widget management, automatic Theme updates and installs, and performance improvements. The poll features the most popular features requests from the Ideas forum and more that the WordPress developers want to work on. Vote by noon on December 31 to have your say in what you want to see in WordPress 2.8.

WordPress 2.7 is at beta version 2 and a ton of work has been done on it, though the official release is now delayed until the end of November. Please upgrade WordPress 2.6. A lot of news about WordPress 2.7 is out, including what you need to know to prepare your blog for the upcoming release. WordPress Plugin and Theme authors are scurrying to update their work accordingly. A fake WordPress.org site is spreading bad WordPress versions – be alert! WordPress opens a new showcase to show off what WordPress can do. A ton of WordCamps are coming up in the next few weeks, and into 2009, including a traveling WordCamp for educators and a skiing, wintry WordCamp in Canada. And more WordPress news.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7 Development: The original release date of November 10 has been pushed back by at least two weeks, though may change as beta testing continues. Two beta versions of WordPress have been released, with WordPress 2.7 Beta 2 fixing a lot of the bugs found in Beta 1. At the time of writing this, the WordPress Development Twitter had 149 changes and fixes reported over the past week. Improvements have been made to localization, the Write Post Panel, design problems for Internet Explorer, rewrite rules for various servers and hosts, and the WordPress Plugin update and install feature. More improvements, fixes, and design features are in process for the next beta release. The new interface is being cheered and readily accepted by testers and many are loving the new Comments and Write Post Panels. The ease of blogging and information on the new Dashboard Panel makes that screen more valuable than ever.